It has long been known that pacification and sleep inducement of human beings and animals, and particularly human infants and other new-born creatures, are complex psychological and physical phenomena. It is known that either or both vestibular and tactile responses of the subject may be involved, since the sensations of both overt movement and touch, and particularly movement, develop early in gestation of higher animals and are closely associated with birth and early post-partum experiences of the newborn.
It has been customary for years beyond numbers to use dolls, toy animals, "security blankets" and the like, generally having a soft surface or body, to pacify or comfort children.
It is also known, as described in the literature, to provide a pulsed tube of warm water to simulate blood pulse, with or without "weepage" through the tube, to simulate the contact of infant rats with their mother.
However, prior to the present invention there has not been available any simple structure for simultaneously simulating breathing, and accompanying substantial cyclical body movement, of a living being in the form of a toy animal, doll or the like, which may be positioned within the vestibular (motion) and tactile (touch) vicinity of a living subject.
As disclosed in one of my earlier publications, the vestibular response is one of the earliest developed of any of the senses in higher forms of animal life, including humans. In my co-authored article, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 1, p 6, et seq. August 1970, it is noted that myelinization of vestibular connections are phylogenetically among the earliest in a human fetus. Such myelinization starts at 4 months, is well under way at 6 months, and is quite heavy at term. Such development is in sharp contrast to development of the visual system and the optic nerve which only begins at birth. At the same time, the vestibular control over the movement of the eyes has been demonstrated to already be functional at birth. Accordingly, while it has been known that such vestibular and tactile sensations accompany an infant's contact with its own or a surrogate mother, including siblings, the response only to such vestibular and tactile sensations (without smell, sight and hearing) has not been well understood.
I have found that such vestibular and tactile sensations alone or in combination only with each other have an outstandingly beneficial effect on the reacting creature and by the present invention, these benefits can be achieved exclusively by a mechanical surrogate mother that simulates both breathing movements and the feel of a live being for any creature in its presence.